Sometimes I’m confused when people think they can’t follow the Trim Healthy Mama healthy eating lifestyle without making two separate meals: one for themselves and one for their families. Almost all of our family favorite meals have been easily “THMable”. Here’s one of them.

PS – it happened again. I tweaked this recipe earlier this year and hadn’t gotten around to posting it yet. I scheduled it this week, then yesterday I found out that there’s a meatloaf recipe in the new THM cookbook called “Mama’s Famous Meatloaf”. All I can say is that great minds think alike…haha. This recipe is the meatloaf recipe that my mama makes.

This meatloaf recipe comes from our old blue church cookbook and was originally submitted by Anna Hershberger. My mom has made it a lot over the years. I’ve made a few tweaks to conform it to healthy standards, but mostly the change-ups were a simple matter of using old fashioned instead of quick oats and using plan-approved sweetener in the topping (which we usually don’t make anyway).

We usually don’t make the topping for the meatloaf (you can serve it with no sugar added ketchup instead), but I’ve included the recipe here in case you want to try it. We used to make the topping until we came to the conclusion that most of the family likes the meatloaf better without it. I’m one of the few who actually likes the meatloaf better with the topping included, but since the rest of the family isn’t on board and I’d just as soon skip a step, I just leave it off.

This meatloaf is a great recipe to make on a Sunday morning and put in the oven during church so dinner is ready and waiting when you get home.

Yes, there are oats in this recipe, and oats are generally an E fuel source (for Trim Healthy Mamas). The net carbs from the oats come to 5.5 grams per serving, which is well within THM S boundaries. While I try not to combine fuels often, sometimes for sake of ease and economy I’m willing to take some liberties. If you don’t want to use that many oats, try substituting some grated parmesan cheese (the kind from the green shake container), keeping in mind that you may need to decrease the salt in the meatloaf (and the meatloaf may turn out a little more dense).

Use your hands to mix all the meatloaf ingredients together. Form into your desired loaf shape in a greased 9x13 inch glass pan.

Make the topping, if desired, by mixing all the ingredients together. Spread on top of the meatloaf.

Bake the meatloaf (uncovered) at 350 degrees F for approximately 45 minutes or until cooked through. We often bake it at 225-250 degrees F for about 3½ hours while we're in church Sunday morning so it's ready for lunch when we get home.

Notes

The net carbs from the oatmeal comes to 5.5 net carbs per serving, which is well with Trim Healthy Mama S guidelines (<10 net carbs per serving).

Hi Briana,
I am very new to the THM way of eating (so far so good) and I LOVE your recipes, everything looks amazing. I also really enjoy meatloaf and am going to try your recipe but I have a question. Would it work if I substituted Oat Fiber for some or all of the Oatmeal or do you think that would make it into sawdust loaf?
Thanks,
Leslie

Good question, Leslie! I personally would not use oat fiber because it’s very dry and I can imagine it wouldn’t do nice things to this yummy meatloaf. If you want a binder other than oatmeal, I suggest experimenting with golden flaxmeal, grated parmesan cheese, and/or THM Baking Blend.

I’m very new to THM, but if I wanted to sub out breadcrumbs in meatloaf with something non-carby and simple I’d go with a bit of (unsweetened) flaked coconut. There really isn’t enough here to taste coconutty, and it’s nice and light, kind of a pseudo-starch.

How many servings does this make? In my house there is only 2 of us. Could I just half the ingredients? I hope so because I only thawed one pound of venison ☺ I plan on making it tonight with green fries and salad.

Or you might try prepping the whole recipe then freezing half. When you want to cook the 2nd half just put the frozen loaf in the frig the morning of the day before you want to bake it to thaw. Anyway that’s what I did. Worked great for our small family.

Hi Briana, I tried this over the weekend and my husband loved it. It was juicy and soft and I thought it was even better than steak. Was thinking, do you think I could make this mix into hamburger patties and freeze (not sure if I should freeze cooked or uncooked) so that I can make hamburgers with it? Thanks!

Hi Teresa! I’ve never tried anything like that, but I bet it would work! I would probably freeze the patties uncooked, then thaw and bake or grill, but I really have no experience with such things so take my advice with a grain of salt. 😉